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YOSSI MATIAS: Hello.
I'm Yossi, and I lead the Health AI Team.
Along with other teams who are advancing AI and using
AI for the benefit of society, including conversational AI
and tackling the climate crisis, our teams
focus on input-driven research, innovation, and [INAUDIBLE]..
So here's what we know.
Health care is not equally accessible across the globe,
whether due to cost, proximity to experts,
schedule flexibility, or a host of other factors.
So when we think of making health care more
accessible to everyone, people like Santi come to mind.
Santi lives with diabetes in rural India.
She's been diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy,
a disease that can cause blindness if not treated early.
Diabetic retinopathy is asymptomatic
in its early stages, making screening critical
for diabetic patients.
Unfortunately, challenges in access to health care
means getting a diagnosis could take months,
if she is diagnosed at all.
Santi is not alone.
Diabetes affects 400 million people
across the globe, 70 million in India alone.
With the help of new technology and expanded access
to health care, diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and other
diseases could be vastly improved.
In fact, it's already happening.
Santi could get same-day screening and treatment
because of these advancements, instead of waiting for months.
Over the past few years, we've shared progress
on our work in this space.
Last year, we shared updates on our Automated Retinal Disease
Assessment project in Thailand and India,
also referred to as ARDA.
ARDA uses AI to help detect diabetic retinopathy
in patients like Santi.
This is done by developing a machine learning model
to look for signs of diabetic retinopathy
in photographs of the back of the eye.
For patients, it's a simple process
of sitting in front of a tabletop
camera that takes the picture.
The clinician then asks ARDA for an interpretation
and uses the information to decide
whether to refer the patient to an eye specialist.
We're so excited to share that this project has been tested
with the Thailand National Screening Program
in a prospective study, which found that ARDA can be deployed
safely and in real time across multiple regions,
and achieves comparable accuracy to eye specialists.
Across the globe, ARDA has screened more than 75,000
people, the majority of whom-- including Santi--
live in remote and rural parts of South India,
with 10 times lower access to eye doctors
than in urban areas.
This innovation marks great progress.
Our work with ARDA has reinforced the need
for regular eye screening, especially
for those who live with diabetes.
But it's also made clear that we need
to reach people who are unable to get to a clinic.
So we've been reimagining the entire patient journey
and investigating what's possible at home.
Our engineers and scientists are envisioning
a future where people, with the help of their doctors,
could detect, diagnose health conditions from their own home.
Today, our research uses large tabletop cameras
to make high-resolution photos of the outside of the eye.
Under uniform lighting, we found that a machine learning model
could sometimes detect when a patient has high blood sugar
levels, high blood cholesterol levels, or diabetic retinopathy
on the inside of the eye just from these photos.
This research has recently been published.
We're in the early stages with our academic and non-academic
partners, such as IPAX and CGMH, and hope
to build on this promising proof of concept research.
This includes further exploration
to see if smartphone images could also
be used to detect these and other potential health issues.
With over 4 billion smartphone users globally,
there is an enormous opportunity to increase
the accessibility of screening and affordability of care.
A device that was once used solely to make phone calls
or sending texts has transformed to a full-featured computer
with many sensors and functions that have the potential
to unlock accessibility.
One way we are doing this is with DermAssist,
our AI-powered skin condition search
app that helps people better understand their skin
concerns by answering a few questions
and taking three quick photos.
Importantly, this technology comes with the responsibility
to build a product that works for everyone--
people of all skin tones, skin types, ages, genders, and more.
We have been working hard to build DermAssist with health
equity as our priority.
And we're excited to get DermAssist
in the hands of product testers later this year.
As with DermAssist, growing from solid base
is something we're already working through
on other projects.
Last year, my colleague Shwetak Patel
introduced some of Google's work to extend
the usefulness of everyday sensors
to support daily health and well-being.
At the time, he shared a new feature
in Google Fit that uses your smartphone camera
to measure your heart and respiratory
rate to track fitness goals.
I'm delighted to share that these features, which
were first available on Google Pixel,
are now available on more than 100 Android device models,
as well as iOS.
Outside of the camera, a smartphone
has many features and sensors that may give insights
into health or wellness.
Another capability we're testing is
whether a smartphone's microphone can correctly
record the sounds that a person's heart makes
when placed over the chest, just like a stethoscope would.
Listening to the heart and lungs with the stethoscope,
auscultation, is a critical part of the physical exam
during a doctor's visit.
Healthy hearts give a characteristic rhythm--
lub dub, lub dub sound.
[REGULAR HEARTBEAT]
But hearts with valve diseases, like aortic stenosis
or other conditions, can make different sounds
such as whooshing or rubbing.
[SWOOSHING HEARTBEAT]
Heart valve disease can sometimes go undetected.
A study from the "Journal of Cardiology"
found that 40% of patients are not
diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis, or AS,
until they start to show symptoms.
A different study from the journal "Circulation"
found that by the time AS patients show symptoms,
half are already too sick, so sick that they
will die from the disease within two to three years.
Screening for AS typically requires specialized equipment
like a stethoscope or an ultrasound
and an in-person assessment.
We're currently in the early stages of a clinical study
where we're testing whether a smartphone application that
uses the phone's built-in microphones can
record a participant's heart sounds
when placed over the chest.
We look forward to sharing more on that in the future.
Remember Santi?
ARDA helped ensure her diabetic retinopathy
was detected early enough to possibly save her vision.
For future patients, we hope to bring Santi's access
to care closer to home with no commute needed.
Google Health strives to build more affordable, convenient,
and accessible care to people around the world.
We can't wait to share all of these groundbreaking
developments in the technology with you.
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